1850.
Reports of Medical Missions.
809
ing, that he had made arrangements with a friend to take his place on board the junk (he being a sailor), and that he could stay as long as necessary. The man was put under the influence of chloroform and the tumor removed; the following day considerable tumefaction of the side of the face came on; this subsided in some slight degree by the third day, when he again said he could not stay longer in the hospital, as the junk was going away; on his be- ing remonstrated with for this deception, he said, that he had only promised to stay, that the operation might be performed, as that was all he wanted; he was told that he would not be restrained from going away if he insisted on it, but that if he must leave, he did so at serious risk to his health, and also to his eyesight, and that he must not suppose that because the operation was easily performed, that therefore he could go about as usual; after much conversation on the subject, he promised to stay, and he was left in the ward in bed; how- ever a few hours afterwards it was found, that he had opened the window, and gone off, taking his bedding with him, and has not since been heard of; and even if he got well, without any untoward accident from inflammation, the wound of the operation, which was four inches long, must, from want of care, have healed very irregularly. This same heedlessness is very frequently ma- nifested by patients with diseases of the eye; they repeatedly apply, being afflicted with severe catarrhal ophthalmia, extensive ulceration of the cornea, &c.; they are attended to, and told that unless they come regularly every day, they will lose one or both eyes. They will attend for a day or two; the dis- ease may perhaps be a little relieved, and then they will not return for five or six days; when the disease having returned with increased violence, and the eye being permanently injured, they are asked, why they did not come every day? and the usual answer is, either that they had not leisure to do so, or it was inconvenient to come so frequently: on being told that their eyes are now seriously injured, and one or as sometimes happens, both, destroyed; they then say, they are sorry they did not do as they were told, but that they had not time to take care of their eyes. This was remarkably shown a short time ago, in the case of a respectable young man, who was in a good situation; he had severe catarrhal ophthalmia, and was told to come for medicine every day; he came for a few days and the virulence was checked; he was then absent for eight or ten days, and at this time the cornes of both eyes had sloughed away, and the eyesight was completely destroyed; he said that he thought his eyes were better; and though he knew, for he had been told, the consequence of irregular attendance, he had business at some distance from Shanghái, and thought it necessary to attend to it, hoping to be able to return at once. In the mean- while, the disease had returned with increased violence, and now he was com- pletely blind, and bitterly lamented the effects of his folly and inattention.
In the list of patients, a great number of persons are reported who have sought relief from the habitual use of opium; more of this class of patients have been seen during the past year than at any former time, no doubt from the means used having been found useful; many of these applicants have not had resolution of purpose sufficient to carry them through the process of treatment, and have relapsed into the use of the drug, but on the other hand, a large proportion of them are believed to have persevered, and wholly broken off the habit which they had acquired. Among these was a young man, the son of an officer at Hangchau, and himself a candidate for office; he applied at the hos pital, and said he wished to stay there till he got well; he had, according to his own account, been in the habit of using eight drams of the drug daily ; his health was consequently very much injured by this excessive use of opium, he was wholly unable to fulfill the duties of his station, and thus all prospect of advance- ment was closed to him, while he remained in this state; he steadily prosecut- ed the plan prescribed for him, and in six weeks left Shanghái, much improved in health and able to live without using the drug at all; his chief fear on leaving was, lest he should be attacked with ague on his return to Hangchau, and then he did not know what he should do without the opium pipe; however medicine was given to him, and he was encouraged to resist the tendency to return to his former habit, which he promised to do. On his departure, he begged permis- sion to place a tablet in the hospital, expressive of his gratitude for the benefit
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